Sights and Sounds of Multimedia

By George Harding

Space Navigator …

Here’s another device to use when you navigate 3D spaces. It’s similar in function to your mouse, but visually quite unlike a mouse.

It has a circular base which is quite heavy – no sliding around! A smaller circular knob rises out of the center top of the base. This knob gives you the ability to maneuver in four different directions: left-right; forward-back; zoom in-zoom out; and rotate.

It is attached with a USB cable and has associated software to give the motion capabilities. The installation procedure sends you to the 3DConnexion web site to see if there is a later software package. In my case, there was, but it was 58 MB! It takes a while to download, even with a fast connection.

The Quick Start manual (8 pages!) instructs you to turn off the computer before connecting the device. Then you install the software. The installation requires 78 MB of space, but this is in part software that you probably won’t use. Some tailored software is provided for Adobe3D, QuickTime, SketchUp, Maya, Studio6 and others.

Once installed, you must have a 3D application in order to use the Navigator. I chose Google Earth. Here, again, a large file must be downloaded, in this case 31 MB. You can use Google Earth with only a mouse if you wish, and, in some cases, it’s easier than with Navigator.

Google Earth provides a 3D view of the world. You can navigate easily with either mouse or Navigator. The latter is somewhat easier because all the motions occur without moving the device, and because very little motion is required to achieve any of left-right, forward-back and so on.

I found it difficult to coordinate my Navigator movements with what I wanted to do. When you move your mouse left, the mouse pointer moves to the left. When you tilt the Navigator hub left, the view field moves left, which means that your view shifts to the right!

This takes some getting used to. I’m still moving the opposite way from that which I want! It’s somewhat like doing things in a mirror – movements must be the opposite of what you think.

The zoom in/out works OK for me – no confusion there. The rotate function, however is like the tilt problem. Rotating the hub clockwise moves the view field counter-clockwise, the opposite of what my brain expects.

The device is well engineered; in fact, it’s a slick-looking piece of hardware. You place it to the left of your keyboard, if you are right-handed. There is no right/left orientation of the device itself, so you could put it anywhere you want.

In playing around with the control center, I found that my orientation problem can be solved by switching all six movements to be the reverse. Now, when I pan left, I go left, as I expect. I guess they’ve come across people like me before!

The software can be installed in Windows, Mac or Linux. There are several versions of the product: Navigator, Explorer, Pilot and Traveler, each with somewhat different functions and price points. I am using the Personal version of Navigator, which sells for a very reasonable $59

SpaceNavigator by Logitech Co. www.3dconnection.com Buy online or at selected resellers

Requires WIN XP or Vista, Mac OS 10 or Linux Redhat Enterprise

Package contains device, CD-ROM, quickstart guide and 2 year warranty.

E for All …

For many years E3 was the game show to end all game shows. It was held in the spring in Los Angeles at the downtown Convention Center and was a huge show. It’s space was monopolized by Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, as the largest game producers of all. The show attracted many tens of thousands and was noisy and crowded.

The show’s producer decided that the size was too big to continue; the final such show was in 2006. Many of those of us who are interested in games decried the death of E3, to no avail. There was a continued interest by many for some sort of game show and IDG came to the fore with the new E for All.

E for All was held in the fall in Los Angeles at the Convention Center, but that’s about all that was similar to E3. Microsoft did not participate, nor did many of the other major producers. Instead of the hundreds of booths, there were only 50 or so.

I only spent one day instead of the three I had in the past at E3. Although the press accommodations were satisfactory, it was nothing like E3 used to do. Fewer exhibitors, especially smaller companies, means less money to provide press extras, I guess.

Nintendo was one of the exhibitors and their most popular game system is the WII. It has the innovative controller that allows you to use motions to cause movement of the game characters, the only gaming system that has this feature. Their booth had a number of games for which participants could try out the motion controllers. It was funny to see a row of people with wands in hand moving to and fro while concentrating on a game screen.

One very interesting area at the show was in the main lobby. A woman was employed to do a chalk drawing of a game character (don’t know which one) on the floor. A large area was roped off for her and she worked for most of a day to complete the drawing. It was impressive!

E for All, a game show www.eforallexpo.com

SIGgraph …

As Monty Python would say, now for something entirely different! SIGgraph is a graphics show, both for those companies which develop software and those that use such software. Some of the more recognizable names are Google, Corel, Disney, HP, IBM, LucasFilm, Nvidia, Pixar, THQ, Dreamworks and Xerox. It was held in San Diego this year.

Exhibit booths show how a company’s software can be used to produce animated movies like Shrek and Toy Story as well as the many other such movies available today. These software products require high-powered computers to use them, so companies that make high-powered computers were also present.

Not only were there many interesting exhibits to sample, SIGgraph also provides the Electronic Theater, an Animation Gallery and training sessions.

Electronic Theater is held at a downtown theater and shows for a couple of hours the best of what electronic artists have come up with in the last year. Most presentations are quite short, perhaps 3 minutes, some are funny, and some simply show what can be done with today’s capabilities. Reserved tickets are required for this Theater show.

The Animation Theater is a continuous show of movie shorts in various classifications. Several large rooms in the Convention Center are set up for this and you come and go as you please.

The training covers a wide range of subjects, most of a very technical nature. For example, “High quality rendering using ray tracing and photon mapping,” and “Geometric modeling based on polygonal meshes,” as well as what might have been a popular course, “Anyone can cook inside Ratatouille’s kitchen.” The last covered challenges met and solved in dealing with cooking and food, including modeling, dressing, shading and light effects.

I don’t pretend to understand much of the details of what these companies are doing, but I can understand the result of their work. I can see from year to year the progress in graphic capability, especially in movies and games. They are doing today what would not have even been thought about ten years ago.

It’s a most interesting show!

SIGgraph www.siggraph.org/s2007